Outdoor Auto Grow Melbourne Hills Australia

Grow Cycle
1

Howdy folks.
Not a huge amount on this topic/region here so thought i would start this thread.
I have a north facing (southern hemisphere so facing the sun) block reasonably protected east, south and west.
Picked up some White Widow and Blueberry Autos from ILGM. I was going to wait until the lead in to August full moon to plant, but have decided to chance a couple of each seeds into the July full moon this weekend instead. July is the absolute dead of winter but we have global warming right?

Planted 2 seeds of each using the paper towell/covered plates method inside. I soaked the seeds for 24 hours in room temp tap water before placing the water/seeds onto plates. Kept the WW and Blues seperate.

The WW had both popped within 48 hours, one clearly ahead of the other.by about half a day in root length development. So, at 72 hours with a half inch root, it has gone into a jiffy pot and sandwich bag , still inside our house Smidge of rooting liquid in the water used to expand the jiffy pot. So, this at 72 hours from placing seeds in water. I will transplant the other WW into a Jiffy Pot tomoz, so at days/96 hours.

The Blueberries are a day or so behind. I read somewhere they like a bit more heat so perhaps understandable. The seeds have swollen nicely and they both look like they have cracked, just waiting for that tap root to appear on them.
So, looks like 100% from 4 seeds - awesome.

I have a plastic covered 600lt 2m x 1m fibreglass bed that these babies will go into over the next few days. The soil is garden stuff from home with leaf mulch, blood n bone, fire ash, 1x 100lt bag perlite, topped w sugar cane mulch. I expect to have 8 plants in this.

In terms of ongoing fertiliser, I only plan on using a bit of 0/13/14 liquid feed once they hit their post veg cycle.

There are plenty of downside risks but prepared to have a crack at this time of year. Our winters are milder with average temps now 14/15C. Warmer under the plastic and i will uncover them to stiffen stems and get some air transfer happening. Their last few weeks of life will coincide with the first week of Spring (September here.) Again, weather has been warmer, so we should get plenty of days in the low 20C range that time as the buds start to fatten.

Thanks to those who have contributed here beforehand. Done a lot of reading and hope to avoid rookie mistakes where possible.

I will put up some progressive photos from time to time and wont fudge any fubars.

I don’t smoke, just love growing stuff, this is an extension of my food growing passion.
See how we go

2

Good luck!

I love outdoor grows.

3

Ok, taking an executive decision here. The 2 Blueberry Auto seeds seem really slow to crack properly sooo
Taken them out of their moist paper towell and got them soaking in some boiled and cooled water with some rooting hormone. I will leave them for a bit(overnight?) and use that water as the water for the jiffys and plant them into it tomoz.
What do ppl think?

4

welcome and good luck mate i be watching for sure, :slight_smile:

5

I don’t like the jiffy pots. I use 32 Oz clear cups with the same size popcorn cups over them(cut off bottom).

Then I can check the status of the roots bully slipping off the popcorn cup.

I have had success with happy frog as a seed starting soil. I’ve also used Kellogg’s organic potting mix, it’s available at our local Costco

6

Hey AAA, I have heard pros and cons and don’t know enough to make a comment on the merits of the 2 relative methods cup v jiffy. I got the jiffies this time bc the seed raising mix is encased in that sleeve and won’t fall apart when it goes into the ground. Just seemed a safer noob option.

Clear plastic cups seem a really good way to germinate too and i will give it a fly at some stage.
The first WW has popped from the jiffy at exactly 5 days from seed going in to water. We have a sunny 18C day here today, so i am going to put the 4 of them in their final home under plastic outside. Should be a toasty 25C or so under there.

7

When I have used Jiffy’s for other plants I always cut off the sleeve around the peat pellet before I plant outdoors.
A lot of folks here soak seeds for 24 hours in a warm spot like in a shot glass on a cable tv box covered by a coffee cup to keep it dark. I plant directly into a soiless mix Pro-Mix HP. (It is like Coco somewhat in function)
Good luck with your grow.

8

Yes, the plastic cups work well. Good Luck.

9

DAY 7 UPDATE
OK, exactly 7days in
Recap:
2WW and 2 Blueberry autos went into:
Water for 24 hrs
Wet Paper towels for 3 days
Jiffy Pots then planted under plastic outdoors day 5
Here at day 7 both WW cotyledons have pushed thru the Jiffy mix. Stout strong looking young stems. One BB is just about to pop thru and one not sure.

A slater had a tiny munch on one of the WW cotyledons. He now gone. Had 2 days of balmy 18C weather, sunny in mid winter. Forecast is for a rubbish week coming up but at least the babies will be tucked in. See where we are end week 2.
Dasall

10

@b2b nice progress :slight_smile: slater , i still call them little armidillo, lol, i don’t think they eat living plant material. i know the chooks love em like candy. :slight_smile:

11

DAY 14 UPDATE
So, first true leaves on one WW outside under plastic and ticking along. Remaining WW that fell over or was munched on is hanging in there trying to get back in the game. One BB is still trying to open up and has shed its seed capsule, one BB no show.
Terrible weather week, wind, rain, cold (9C max.) At least they undercover.

Popped some more seed inside, 2 WW, 2 BB. Left WW in water for 48 hours and BB for 72.hours, they slower. WW into Jiffy pots day 3 and both have germinated day 5 from going in to water. BB into Jiffies day 4, I waited until they had properly cracked in the water before moving them into the Jiffies. They are a bigger firmer seed than WW and my feeling is they need more heat.
Both new WW and BB in plastic bags under a standard globe just to get them moving. I leave it on all day and just turn it off when we hit the sack. ,19C inside the house so nice and warm. I will monitor them over the next few days before thinking about putting them outside under plastic.

12

OK, 5 weeks tomoz since the first 2 WW went outdoors under plastic, middle of a cold Melbourne winter, taking one for the team.
One girl is working on her 3rd set of true leaves, genuinely only 3 inches tall atm, but she healthy. The other girl originally fell over/stretching. She sooked for awhile but is mounting a babyface comeback!

Second duo of WW been outside now 3 weeks in same bed. One is a shrimp but she looks healthy, still working on that second set of true leaves. The other was doing great, had a slug/leaf setback and she still shaking off the cobwebs. Could go either way.
No success with first 4 BB autos and the crew here have agreed to replace. Fab.

Popped 4 more WW and 6BB into water Monday this week. Saturday today. 24 hours only in water then all in to Jiffys which is slightly different to last time to see if i get a better result w BB. Voila! All WW popped after 2 days in Jiffy, so 72 hours after going into water to soak. Amazing genetics. 3 of 6 BB also popped so far and looks like i will get 2 more. Both types are stretching but into their first set of true leaves.

It has been a lousy Melbourne winter 12C13C highs, 7C lows and spending some money on seed sowing to establish a viable undercover outdoor season commencement date moving forward. The girls are hanging in there. Probably impact yield on first 4 WW but at least it will establish a baseline for me.
Cheers folks.

13

OK long time no time.
The first WW is in full bloom, gone thru her stretch and filling out nicely. White pistils appearing and she is probably still a few weeks from done. Looks like she will max out about 70cm in height. LST, main cola furthest from sun. About 6-7 other colas forming nicely. She is in a supported cylinder metal frame, be interesting to see the yield. Smells great.She has come thru the depths of a cold wet Melbourne winter magnificently. Bit reluctant to use a work phone to put up photos.

She is at about 115 days and only gets about 6-7 hours direct sun so things have been slow, BUT IT CAN BE DONE THRU WINTER.

2 Blueberry autos in the same bed at 85 days. About at the end of their stretch, unsupported but doing well. A bug ate the growing tip in one. She adapted and pushed out 2 main colas. See what happens. The other looks like being 10-15cm taller than the WW.

I have put a few new WW in Oct 1, second month of Spring. These get more sun and have bounced away nicely. On their 3rd set of true leaves, I expect them
to run closer to the normal expected short run time for WW autos. NY Eve is the target harvest date here so around 90 days, see how we go.

Been an interesting winter experiment. We will be building a 10m x 6m greenhouse enclosing some existing veggie beds this summer. It would appear I may be able to grow autos year round, perhaps expecting longer grow times and perhaps lower yields during the cooler months.

Side note, we made some canna butter from last season’s standard grows. Used that in a cookie mix, holy crap. It takes awhile but when it hits…

Stay safe everyone.

14

Main Cola on first WW harvested today. 70grams wet weight, so perhaps 1/2 an ounce by the time she is dry. 8 more colas on that particular plant. plant. 146 days from seed soak thru the dead of a wet Melbourne winter.
Looks to be about 4 ounces from that plant all up. Will go close to a pound from 6 plants in a 2.4m x 1.2m bed. Great result for a first time auto grow planted in the depths of winter. I reckon next year, i plant them in a bit more exposed area and that July planting will be completely done end October.
The interesting thing is the group of WW planted Oct1. At 54 days, they are right in the guts of flowering. LST on the main cola of each which will mean 6-8 other colas on each plant. It is my expectation these will be done and dusted pretty close to the 90 day mark. Amazing what a little heat and extra light does. I reckon 3-4 ounces/plant will be the yield based on how the plants currently look…
This has been a fun experiment and will give me a bit of a framework to go by next year.